Thread by @ClimateAudit

savage commentary in WSJ today about the "grifters" and the dossier archive.is/vpkcP. But even this editorial under-states and mis-identifies the much more serious issue in relation to the dossier which Meier neglected and even misdirected away from.

archive.is/vpkcP Editorialist Holman Jenkins recognizes the flimsiness of Steele's supposed "network", but it's worse than he says. "Millian's role" wasn't "inflated"; it was fabricated. Neither Steele nor Danchenko ever met or had contact with Millian. Meier ignored this

3/ the most alarming allegations of collusion, set out in their most gory detail in Report 95 (which was delivered less than a week after Wikileaks drop as intel porn fulfilling Dem fantasies) were based on supposed "network". They were fabricated in Beltway and/or UK.

4/ it's far from clear what, if anything, in Danchenko-Steele narrative was even based on gossip from "drinking buddies", as opposed to fictional dialogues constructed onto slender framework of open source information on where people were (e.g. Page in Moscow in early July)

5/ it's also unclear how much and which fabrications originated with Beltway think tank wannabe Danchenko and how much and which with Steele's office and/or Simpson's office.

6/ but here's where (IMO) both Meier and Jenkins lose the plot. In retrospect, the 2016 press was considerably more circumspect than today's deranged media. They were rightly skeptical of the Steele-Danchenko fraud and didn't publicize dossier until Jan 2017.

7/ but seminal event in establishing dossier was (1) inclusion of dossier allegations and references in Jan 6 ICA, even though they did not meet IC standards for assessment information. This was done at insistence of Comey and McCabe supposedly to comply with Obama instructions.

8/ and (2) perhaps just as importantly, Comey (reportedly) comprehensively vouched for reliability of Steele and his sub-source network at the Jan 5 ICA briefing with Obama, Biden and senior officials. Comey's briefing of Obama officials would have scared the wits out of them.

9/ immediately following Comey's panicky, partisanly paranoid and ill-informed briefing on Jan 5, the sabotage of incoming administration began. The inclusion of the Steele allegations in the ICA was immediately leaked to the press and reported by CNN.

10/ it was this leak of inclusion of Steele allegations and IC vouching for Steele that gave cover to the CNN story, subsequent Buzzfeed publication and then Trump-deranged media lost its mind.

11/ Jenkins made excellent point that Democrat funders created enormous slush fund in early 2017 which Jenkins astutely surmised was to "keep them [Steele and Danchenko] on the reservation".

12/ Jenkins omitted the important point that FBI abetted the fraud by shutting down Pientka's attempt to validate Steele, treating Danchenko as a (Democrat) CHS rather than a (Republican) target and a seemingly corrupt bargain to keep Danchenko quiet.

13/ the main functional outcome of Steele dossier fraud, once it was weaponized by Comey and FBI, was to create/help create conditions for the partisan Special Counsel that immobilized Trump administration for 3 years.